Preview: Internazionali BNL d'Italia

Preview: Internazionali BNL d'Italia
City: Rome, Italy
Surface: Outdoor Clay
Championship Points: 1000
2008 Singles Champion: Novak Djokovic
2008 Doubles Champions: Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan

The top ATP playes will be in contention. Most of the American singles players will be in attendance. Andy Roddick, Gael Monfils, David Nalbandian and Mario Ancic have all withdrawn.

Rafael Nadal is clearly the one to beat. He has already won two of the three Masters tournaments this year and is having another ridiculous year. The only way he loses if he is injured or gets struck by lightening. Though I noticed, his half of the draw is loaded with all the dangerous players (Murray, Verdasco, Davydenko). This is the same tournament where Juan Carlos Ferrero unexpectedly snapped Nadal's winning streak on clay last year, so anything could happen.

Aside from Nadal, it is the usual suspects of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. Djokovic won the tournament last year and looked good in the Monte-Carlo final against Nadal. I think he is the better bet on clay than Murray.

Andy Murray has improved greatly on clay but comes down with the case of Nadalitis when he plays the Spaniard. It happens on clay as well as other surfaces, despite the conventional wisdom from the Jason Goodalls of the world. Murray is also in Nadal’s half on the draw.

Roger Federer is having a bad year and is in rapid decline, but he is always dangerous. The Swiss did get it together last year to win the US Open when everyone wrote him off like a bad check. It is also beneficial to him that his quarter of the draw is pretty friendly to him. He only has to get past Djokovic in the semifinals.

I will keep hope alive that Gilles Simon will get it together in time (if he no one upsets him) for the quarterfinals to challenge Federer. Simon is currently 2-0 over the Swiss. I would like to see if he really has Federer’s number. As for the other Musketeers, Tsonga has been battling injury over the last couple of weeks, and Gasquet just lacks courage. Tsonga and Gasquet play each other in the first round and are in Nadal’s quarter.

There are also the next-tier players who could break at any time. They include Juan Martin del Potro, Fernando Verdasco and Stanislas Wawrinka. Veterans Fernando Gonzalez and Nikolay Daveydenko could also be trouble if they get hot for the week. There are also the other three Spaniards of David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Almagro, who are great on clay but are kind of harmless when the top-four are around.

Tournament Draw
Singles / Doubles

Tournament Malfeasance
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Richard Gasquet
Nicolas Almagro vs. Ernest Gulbis
Tommy Robredo vs. Marat Safin
Nicolas Kiefer vs. Q Juan Monaco - Updated

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(Images: Internazionali BNL D’Italia/Costantini)